With friends, family and admirers all lined up here, they attest to a good man who was deeply troubled. What they can't quite get to is who exactly that man was. He briefly comes into focus, then recedes.&dash; Newsday - EDIT

NBC promised the most lavish live TV musical ever, spread across a couple of Universal lots. But instead, this often felt like some of those million-plus high school productions: crimped, dark, confined and spread across a few school stages.&dash; Newsday - EDIT

As worthy, intelligent, sweeping and absolutely necessary as this four-hour film is - and caveat emptor, I've only seen the first two - "Black America" still often feels like a survey.&dash; Newsday - EDIT

Dutiful, reverent, energetic, expertly crafted and yet utterly incapable of escaping the long shadow of its exotic midnight forbear. The capacity to entertain is still here. The capacity to shock is not.&dash; Newsday - EDIT

The movie is much ado about nothing, feeling desperately thin and pointless. At first promising campy fun, it's soon simply mystifying, then misguided, gross and finally tiresome in its look-at-me-ness.&dash; Newsday - EDIT

Would you rather me play nice here, given the auspices of what appears to be a highly laudable charity and Ferrell's efforts in support thereof? Or save you 49 minutes of precious time Saturday night, which might otherwise be devoted to (I dunno), sleep?&dash; Newsday - EDIT